Year after 6-year-old killed at crosswalk, East Palo Alto still studying whether stop sign needed

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
09/28/2012 08:28:02 AM PDT

Updated:
09/28/2012 08:28:07 AM PDT

The gravesite for 6-year-old Sioreli Torres, who was run over by a car one year ago today in an East Palo Alto crosswalk while walking to school, lies in a spot of Menlo Park's Holy Cross Cemetery reserved for young lives cut short.

From a marker partially covered with vases of pink and yellow flowers, a statue of an angel, a silver plastic tiara and a Barbie doll reads the message, "Siempre Estaras Nuestros Corazones Mi Nina." (You will always be in our hearts, my little child.)

Sioreli's mother, 34-year-old Guadalupe Zamora Medina, visits the gravesite every Saturday with her three daughters, ages 3, 4 and 6. She brings fresh flowers and tidies up the display. What she doesn't do is cry.

"She doesn't want to upset the little girls," said Josephina Domingues, a friend who was an interpreter for an interview with Medina on Thursday in the family's East Palo Alto home.

On the morning of Sept. 28, 2011, Medina was just a few steps behind Sioreli holding the hands of two other daughters as they all crossed Bay Road at Gloria Way when a woman driving a BMW fatally struck the Green Oaks Academy second-grader.

In the wake of the tragedy, community residents and Medina family members called for a stop sign at that intersection, where at least six accidents involving a vehicle and a pedestrian have occurred since 2004. According to a 2010 UC-Berkeley study commissioned by the city, the intersection tied with two others -- Bay Road at University Avenue and Bell Street at University Avenue -- for having the most vehicle-pedestrian injuries in East Palo Alto from 2004 to 2009. Just six months before Sioreli died, an 8-year-old boy was hit by a car there and ended up in a body cast for several months.

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Rather than put up a stop sign, East Palo Alto opted to install flashing lights within the crosswalk and in yellow intersection warning signs, add pavement markings and eliminate some curb parking spaces to improve drivers' sight lines. The district also assigned a crossing guard there before and after school.

Staff is still monitoring the intersection and traffic improvements, as well as the entire stretch of Bay Road from University Avenue to Bridge Street, to determine whether a stop sign is necessary, City Engineer Kamal Fallaha said in an email Thursday. Fallaha said he expects the study to be finished by the end of the year.

East Palo Alto parents on Bay Road walking their children to school on Thursday said a study isn't necessary because it's plain that cars still roll through the intersection despite the presence of children, flashing lights and a crossing guard blowing a whistle to get drivers' attention.

"They would stop if there was a sign, because if they didn't they'd get a ticket," said Elia Aguirre.

Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica said he'd also like to see a stop sign at the intersection.

"I'm not a traffic engineer, but I do think it should be there," Abrica said. "With the best of intentions it's still a busy area; a stop will mean a stop."

For now, Medina and her ex-husband, Gabriel Torres Aguilar, are waiting for their day in court; a lawsuit they filed in May against the city and driver is scheduled for a case management conference in December.

The driver, F. Alisha White-Parker, a Ravenswood City School District teacher, was not charged with any crime.

Medina said she is seeking accountability more than money. On Oct. 2, Sioreli would have celebrated her eighth birthday.

"She doesn't want them to do this again for another child or person," Medina said through Domingues.